Railways hikes passenger fare. Check new rates here

The Railway Ministry  ordered an across-the-board hike in passenger basic fare. The hike will come into effect from midnight. “Ministry of Railways has decided to revise the basic passenger fare... effective from 1 January 2020,”
said the order issued on Tuesday evening hours before the new fare will come into effect.

As per the order, the fare has been hiked by 1 paise per km for ordinary non-AC trains. The fare has been hiked by 2 paise per km for mail and express trains (non-AC coach) and 4 paise per km for travel in AC classes. The fake hike comes a day after Railway Board chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav told reporters that the Centre had not taken any decision to raise passenger and freight fare. He had, however, spoken about the deliberation to “rationalise” the fare.

As the new fare for passengers was notified, the ministry stressed that the last fare revision was carried out five years ago in 2014-15. It may be noted that while passenger’s revenue earnings witnessed a dip of Rs 155 crore, freight fares saw the loss of Rs 3,901 crore in the second quarter of the current fiscal, compared to the corresponding one in the previous fiscal.

“Subsequently, there has been a steady up-gradation and expansion of amenities, both off-board and on-board. Indian Railways has continuously endeavoured to augment passenger experience through modernization of coaches and provision of improved facilities over stations,” the ministry said.

In case of tickets already issued at pre-revised rates, the difference of fare on or after 1 January 2020 will not be collected from the passengers. However, any new tickets made by the ticket examiner or ticket checking staff in trains or stations shall be charged on revised fare, the railway ministry added.

The order further said the fare hike would cover travel in trains such as Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Vande Bharat, Tejas, Humsafar, Mahamana, Gatimaan, Antyodaya, Garib Rath, Jan Shatabdi, Rajya Rani, Yuva Expresses, Suvidha and special trains on special charges, AC MEMU (non-suburban) and AC DEMU (non-suburban).